[LargeFormat] war story

[Les Newcomer]

One of Henry Ford's playgrounds was The Henry Ford Museum. Part of the
Museum and Village were several schools incorporated into the Village and a
High School as part of the Museum.

Besides the 3rs, Henry also promoted "proper" dancing.  Line, contra,
square, anything from his generation. He held monthly dances for the High
School students to practice their deportment and learn something besides the
Lindy Hop, the Black Bottom or other atrocious dances like the tango.

Well Henry moved on but the dances stayed. Infact they've been going on for
more than 50 years!

In October a few years back Don Cardwell and I set out to have some fun.
the hall was long and wide, and the band shell was in the center of the long
side, so this would have to be a W I D E shot.

He got his Deardorf, HP5, and some holders. I brought my 120 Nikor SW some
#3 flash bulbs, light stands and my welders goggles.  Oh and my Crown two
Graphmatics and a pile of #5Bs.  We pre set the Deardorf on a rolling tripod
and put up the Winston Link-esque reflectors on either side. Then sort of
moved it back as far as it could go.

I made happy snaps of the couples, found out the hard way you MUST cock a
syncro-compur before putting a fresh bulb in the socket, had a good time,
got some decent pictures too. Also discovered that before the tennis craze,
they called it 'Photographer's elbow'

toward the end of the evening the band leader got every body paired up with
their partner, mushed as close to the band shell as possible, Don made a
silly speach about Henry shipping us new brighter bulbs just for this
occasion (which is when I put my goggles on)  Don opened the lens on bulb
and I stomped on my darkroom timer switch. Whooof!  The fools actually let
us do it a second time!


And yes a 120mm SW will cover 8x10, just.


Les

> From: Clive Warren <cocam@blueyonder.co.uk>
> 
> Great to hear that you're using the SG handheld - I have used mine to
> take snaps in the past with the flash bulbs, once found a piece of
> paper in my hatband after a party with the word "Press" on it :-)
> 
> Moving around without a tripod is very refreshing and opens up all
> sorts of possibilities that you would not normally consider. Look
> forward to seeing the photos if they pass your critical eye.
> 
> Cheers,
> Clive
> 
> _______________________________________________
> LargeFormat mailing list
> LargeFormat@f32.net
> http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/largeformat